If you reduce the quantity of things being thrown away then I can imagine that. Like, I can picture people chucking stuff into a bin or even a landfill, but any more than that and my mind struggles to picture it. Its like when you try and imagine a massive grape, once it gets past a certain point then it may as well just be the same size

the complex supply chains that supermarkets have. Or the high expectations of stock availability.

They'll know roughly what they can sell within the best before date window. And if they unexpectedly run out (which will be way more likely than having out of date surplus), then it's no biggie. They have what they have (or they don't). Take it or leave it (or lump it).

Supermarkets will strive to stay in stock of everything and also for that to be in date. They obviously don't quite manage it perfectly, but as a percentage of their overall stock it's nutin. (Although as an absolute amount it's pretty considerable, and I believe France is looking at some sort of ban and forced donation thing for supermarket food waste).

"They obviously don't quite manage it perfectly"... and I reckon the co-op must take a big hit on this. Don't they have some sort of ethical social policy on availability of fresh fruit and veg, despite having hunners of shops located in places where the customers generally haven't eaten anything fresh for x amount of time.